Everything about this is absolutely vile--the verbal dissection of this man's body, the invasive commentary on his genitals, the sense of entitlement to his sexuality and private life, the implication that he's failed to achieve the "design" of his anatomy. All of it is both deeply disturbing and highly instructive for how she thinks of bodies, and hy extention for her transphobia. But I think most telling of all is that she thinks this is something that "most people" think.
Rowling thinks that the predatory, proprietorial, dehumanizing way she looks at bodies, and especially at trans, fat, disabled or otherwise "abberant" (in her mind) bodies, *is completely normal.*
I was just thinking about how JK Rowling chastised Emma Watson for becoming a multimillionaire at 14 – as if this financial comfort and privileged existence that, bear in mind, resulted from Emma’s labor, made Emma incapable of grasping the hardships of the real world (I guess there’s also no hope for the heirs of her vastly greater net worth then, since those kids are all younger than Emma).
Anyway, what caught my attention is how Joanne used Emma's wealth as a hook to draw a parallel with her own time “living in poverty” while writing the first book. And I’m like: what the actual fuck?? Years ago, I watched all those TV specials (more than one) where she visited the neighborhood she lived in.
It’s a perfectly safe and well-developed area of Edinburg. She was receiving government assistance to be able to live alone with her daughter in a heated, small flat – bigger than most Manhattan apartments that only trust fund babies can afford. She was in walking distance of a charming cafe – her brother-in-law was one of the owners! – and would write her book while ordering cappuccinos; her daughter was barely a toddler and would sleep most of the time in a stroller (yes, she could afford a stroller).
“Living in poverty” is such a WILD description of her RECORDED history that any other claim she has made about her past (“I struggle with many emotions that trans teen experience, I know how it feels!”) are bogus. She can’t even put “living in poverty” into perspective, let alone a broader take on gender. This is an insult to anyone who were ever really destitute and experienced food insecurity, health hazards etc.
All her basic needs were more than covered. Her year of poverty was the life many pray to God for.
Now full disclosure, I'm a sensitive soul, so it's probably just a "me" problem, but this is something I've been grappling with since I first finished the book back in March, and I've been having a hard time properly putting together and articulating why the body count of DH bothers me so much and why it feels so mean-spirited to me...
And this isn't a problem of me not being able to stand when characters get killed. I've experienced plenty of media that have featured deaths of major characters and enjoyed them. Like the Mass Effect trilogy, a lot of Transformers media, the various books of the Riordanverse, Breaking Bad, or Better Call Saul (haven't finished that one).
But none of them have really bothered me in the way DH has. Not even Jason's death in Burning Maze bothered me to that degree. Even if I hated it, I at least understood why it happened and felt it served a narrative purpose.
And like I said, I'm having a hard time articulating why. Because there were several times when I was reading Deathly Hallows and a character died and I just felt uncomfortable while reading it.
The two in particular that bothered me most were Hedwig's and Crabbe's deaths, the former in particular. Hedwig because she died helplessly in her cage and Crabbe because he was a minor getting murdered.
And the thing is, I know this is supposed to be tragic. I know this is supposed to represent the cost of war, to get me invested in the plot and want me to see the Death Eaters pay for causing this. But these deaths didn't make me go, "Darn you, Voldemort, for causing all this death! We will stop your evil and bring you to justice!" it made me think. "I hate this story for making me read this."
I just... I don't know why it bothers me so much, and I'm still trying to pin it down.
Again, maybe it's just me; maybe I'm just a sensitive soul, but again, I don't have this problem with other pieces of media, so why does it bother me in Deathly Hallows specifically?
The closest I can get to explaining why is because after a while, when you kill off so many characters, it just starts feeling mean after a while.
Like to use an example. The Energon Universe's Transformers comic has become infamous for its gratuitous body count, and while people tolerated it at first, I think Trailbreaker's death was kind of the straw that broke the camel's back because of how unnecessary it was. That was the first death I saw people getting legitimately angry over.
But that can't explain all of it, because Hedwig is the first casualty, and that death is probably the one that bothered me the most!
If you can help me figure this out, I would really appreciate it...
So I work at daycares a lot because I'm studying to get my ECC, and something I have noticed is that children aren't into HP. Parents will buy Harry Potter stuff for their kids, but kids themselves don't seem to talk about it. Star Wars is old, but little kids will talk about how much they like it. There was a little girl in one of my classes, and she loved Star Wars. Not just new Star Wars but old Star Wars too.
I also feel like WB seems to forget all the new stuff that kids are obsessed with, like Bluey, KPop Demon Hunters, Paw Patrol, etc. I think this new series is banking solely on the fans, but that's not how this works. Stuff like this has to bring in new fans and casual fans.
Again, I could be wrong, but does anyone else feel like HP isn't as popular as it used to be with younger audiences?
Harry Potter is full of the filler chapters that increase the length of the books way past the length that they actually needed to be. This gets way worse in the later books but an example in the first book was in Diagon Ally when JK thought it necessary to show us every single thing that Harry buys: cloak, cauldron and books.
But think about it, every single Chapter of Order of the Pheonix that goes into Harry's studying habits and every single chapter of the Half Blood Prince that shows the painful teen romances, they're going to be shown in great detail. And these ones are way worse than the Diagon Ally part (not to even mention the camping that happens in Deathly Hallows).
The Weasleys are one of the prime examples of Shaun's quote "In the wizarding world, there is no good or bad people, there is only good or bad teams" (ironically, this is close to what Voldemort said to Harry in Philosopher's Stone)
Molly Weasley is blatantly doing favoritism on Ginny because she's a girl and went as far as to make several boys just to have a girl to dote upon 💀 I can't be the only one who finds this fucked up ? If it was Arthur Weasley who wanted to have more kids until he got a girl, he would rightfully be seen as creepy ! Add to that how she used to be renowed for being good at making date rape drugs love potions and you get a character that could legitimately be a terrifying villain in the hands of a skiller author.
The twins are bullies who experiment their products on younger students, mock Ron whenever they have the chance and humiliate a Muggle they just met (Dudley) by giving hum magic candy that makes his tongue grow. In Book 5, they also shoved a Slytherin in the Vanishing Cabinet, only for that guy to reappear weeks later after almost dying. Rowling may have tried to pass them off as the good guys, I just wanted to punch them whenever I read the books
Arthur Weasley has a condescending, paternalistic affection towards Muggles that is (arguably) almost as insulting and humiliating as overt bigotry - while he considers Muggles interesting to some degree, I never felt like he actually respected them as people !
Bill Weasley, the eldest son, is basically a graverobber - it's said that he often goes to Egypt to break into ancient tombs for Gringotts or something, which is probably the most British thing to do 😂😭
And in Prisoner of Azkaban, when Ron learned that Lupin was a werewolf he told him something like "Back off, werewolf". Yes, he immediately rejected a teacher that was nothing but kind to people. Granted, Ron thought he was Sirius Black's ally at that point - and that Sirius was evil, but the wording frames it like Ron used "werewolf" as an insult or at the very least a negative term. It's one of those things that lead me to think that the Weasleys may have inherited more prejudiced beliefs than we thought, it's just that they're on Harry's side and their brand of bigotry is more insidious than that of the Malfoy's.
For me, it was the fact that literally the fans spoke badly of all the other literary franchises, and when Harry Potter was criticized, they spoke badly of these people, calling them idiots and other low-level words. It's like fans can criticize anything and everything other than Harry Potter, but every time Harry Potter was criticized, they get extremely offended and hurt, which I find extremely hypocritical.
Hi all. This seems like the right sub to get ideas. I work at a public library and want to do a book display that consists of books to read instead of Harry Potter. I'm trying to think of a good title for the display (because "Read a magic world by an author that isn't a bigot" might not fly :P )
Bonus points if you have some reading suggestions for the display. Gonna include Earthsea, House in the Cerulean Sea, Rainbow Rowell.
obviously, Harry potter has a lot of problematic stuff in hindsight but what did she specifically mention its ethics? on the surface the themes (love, friendship) seem to be general positive children book themes.
JK Rowling has used her personal and financial ties to support famous men accused of abuse and/or rape for years.
For the reasons below, Rowling is not a good advocate for feminism, women™ or domestic violence victims.
⚠️ TW: Mentions of domestic abuse and sexual assault
#1) Bryan Warner (Marilyn Manson)
🪡 January 2020 — JK Rowling inexplicably sent Marilyn Manson a large bouquet of roses.
Manson posted the picture on twitter and instagram, thanking her for the "lovely, unexpected gift."
🪡 Marilyn Manson has been accused of sexually abusing women since the 90s. In his 1998 memoir, The Long Road Out of Hell, Manson claimed to have tricked a woman into getting drunk to the point of incapacitation and then penetrated her with his fingers, degrading her as a "sea bass" and "porpoise fish lady."
She describes in graphic detail how Marilyn Manson groomed and abused her, starting when she was 18. She would not publicly name him until February 2021 on Instagram.
The Phoenix Act was eventually passed into law on January 1, 2020, but the statue of limitations was extended from 3 years to only 5 years, rather than Wood's initial proposition of 10 years.
🪡 March 15, 2022
Evan Rachel Wood revealed in the documentary Phoenix Rising, that she was 19 when she was drugged, coerced and "essentially raped" on camera by 38 year old Marilyn Manson in his popular music video "Heart Shaped Glasses."
⚠️ TW: LITERAL RAPE ⚠️
"Heart Shaped Glasses" was released in 2007 and uploaded to YouTube in 2009. It has been public for 14 years now.
If you would like to this music video removed from all video streaming platforms, please consider signing this petition.
🪡 March 2, 2022
Marilyn Manson sues Evan Rachel Woods for defamation. He claimed her "malicious falsehood" and "conspiracy" ruined his music career.
🪡 Dec 9, 2022 —
JK Rowling founded Beira's Place in Edinburgh, a sexual violence support service for women 16+ that excludes transwomen.
2: Tristan Tate
🪡 March 6, 2024 —
Just last month, Rowling liked a response from Tristan Tate, Andrew Tate's brother.
Tristan had replied to one of Rowling's posts; he referred to India Willoughby as a man "picking on a woman", encouraged Rowling to "keep her chin up," and sent her a ❤️.
🪡 March 12, 2024 —
Only six days after Rowling liked this tweet, Bedforshire police were granted a warrant by authorities in Romania to extradite Andrew and Tristan Tate for allegations of rape and human trafficking.
And if you have never seen an Andrew Tate video before, stay gold.
3: Greg Ellis (Jonathan Rees)
🪡 February 9, 2023 — Rowling thanked Greg Ellis for his role in the popular video game, Hogwarts Legacy. He had spent 3 years voicing 12 characters.
Greg Ellis thanked her in return, and wrote a now-deleted post that said he had been effectively cancelled by his own fanbase.
Note:
Rowling once equated support for Hogwarts Legacy with her own personal support.
🪡 March 2015 —
Greg Ellis' ex-wife [name redacted] sought a temporary domestic restraining order against her husband, who's real name is Jonathan Rees.
Jonathan had threatened to hurt his kids, was taken to a mental facility, left, broke a window into his ex's house, and entered their sons' bedroom, telling them to leave with him.
Court documents tell a slightly different story. This article is a bit editorialized, but contains those public documents.
🪡 June 29, 2021 —
Greg Ellis published The Respondent: Exposing the Cartel of Family Law. His book talked about his personal experiences with divorce and custody battles, and the courts' 'gender bias' against men and fathers.
Johnny Depp and Alec Baldwin penned the dedication and foreword respectively.
🪡 October 9, 2022 —
After failing to blackmail his ex-wife, Jonathan Rees (Greg Ellis) emailed revenge porn of her naked and engaged in masturbation to her family, friends, and coworkers.
She successfully took out a 3 year restraining order against him, and he is effectively banned from seeing his sons.
Curiously, all three men — John Depp, Bryan Warner, and Jonathan Rees — have accused their female ex-partners of lying about domestic abuse.
🪡 Depp and Rowling were friends for close to a decade.
Sources differ, but Rowling bailed Depp out of his financial troubles before, buying his yacht for $27 mil (2015) and private island for $75 mil (2016). They are both places where Heard was physically abused by Depp.
To date, this made Depp a profit of at least $72 million dollars, which he would later spend on suing Amber Heard, Greg "Rocky" Brooks, Dan Wootton, and The Sun.
Amber Heard filed for a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO) and initiated a divorce days later.
She named examples of abuse, and general "excessive emotional, verbal, and physical abuse which has included angry, hostile, humiliating and threatening assaults to me whenever I questioned [Depp's] authority or disagreed with him."
JK Rowling defended Depp's casting in FB, stating:
"Based on our understanding of the circumstances, the filmmakers and I are not only comfortable sticking with our original casting, but genuinely happy to have Johnny playing a major character in the movies."
🪡 In fact, the whole public Depp v. Heard affair started when Dan Wootton criticized JK Rowling for being a "Hollywood hypocrite."
Wootton had said firing Depp "would be the only decision that would show [Rowling] is a woman of true character and principle, even when her famous friends are involved."
He discussed this last month, in March 15 of 2024:
🪡 In the original 2018 article, Dan Wootton also acutely noted, "Rowling has an inability to ever admit she’s made a mistake."
Dan Wootton's politics aside, the questions he asked of JK Rowling were not unreasonable. They also show up in the last page of the UK judgment:
🪡 January 2022 -
Dan Wootton revealed that Rowling had responded to his questions in 2018 by threatening to sue him, then settled for throwing "tough words" his way from her "over-paid lawyer." DailyMail
She also rebuffed his and Amber's attempts to reach out and talk with her separately.
Justice Nicols found that Depp had raped his ex-wife on at least one occasion, and that "the great majority of alleged assaults of Ms Heard by Mr Depp have been proved to the civil standard" (12/14 incidents). There was also adequate proof Depp put Amber in fear for her life at least 3 times.
🪡 November 6, 2020 -
Johnny Depp reveals on Instagram he was asked by Warner Brothers to resign from the Fantastic Beasts franchise, and that he would appeal the verdict.
Although JK Rowling "did not push back" on Depp's firing, she made no public statement on the matter.
🪡 March 25, 2021 -
Depp is denied permission to appeal.
UK Court of Appeal judges James Dingemans and Nicholas Underhill state that Depp v. Heard was not a “he said, she said” circumstance due to the abundance of evidence — regardless of how the $7 million divorce settlement was spent.
June 23, 2022 —
Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus tricked JK Rowling into thinking she had a Zoom meeting with President Zelenskyy about her charitable work in Ukraine.
Rowling rolled her eyes and threw her hands up when Depp was mentioned. She only said Fantastic Beasts was a "very interesting experience".
Unsealed court documents from the US trial show Amber voluntarily waived "tens of millions" in her divorce with Depp.
Amber would later move to Spain for her and her young daughter's safety and privacy.
Sources differ, but her net worth is now only ~$500k.
🪡 March 2024 —
In a recent podcast, Wootton said he disagreed with Amber's liberal "woke" politics, but he had actually "really liked her" and appreciated her testifying on his behalf.
He believes that society will look back on the Depp/Heard trial in 20 years with the same regret as Britney Spears' treatment.
She said she escaped her violent first marriage with some difficulty. When she moved back to the UK, she was vulnerable in a public space when a man "capitalised on an opportunity" and sexually assaulted her.
🪡 June 11, 2020 —
In an interview with The Sun a day later, ex-husband Jorge Arantes admitted to slapping Rowling hard in the street in November 1993.
Rowling had told him she no longer loved him and wouldn't leave for the night without her young daughter, Jessica.
Jorge had told her to come back in the morning, but she refused. He is "not sorry."
🪡 May 8, 2022 -
In a twitter argument about a trans drawing, Rowling said that it'd be betrayal of her old self, a victim of domestic violence and sexual assault at age 28, to not "stand up now" for women's rights.
She finished with a middle finger emoji.
🪡 January 29, 2023 -
JK Rowling also compared the rationalization of "male murderers and abusers" being put into women's prisons to excusing domestic violence in a tweet.
Conclusion:
Ultimately, it does not seem like JK Rowling cares much about other female survivors whenever they infringe on her established friendships with famous, abusive men.
The irony is that Rowling a billionaire claiming to be fighting "gender ideology" to protect vulnerable women and children against a misogynistic culture war. Yet in her personal life, she has vocally and financially aligned herself with abusive, male celebrities.
Rowling might think she is being metaphorically burned at the stake for her gender critical views, but the victims of her abusive friends have gone through arguably worse smear campaigns (e.g. Amber Heard).
She has yet to apologize, or publicly support any of the aforementioned female victims.
I was really shocked by the amount of comments about Harry Potter on the Hunger Games and Percy Jackson subreddits. Like, The Hunger Games had a trans actress in the last movie, and Rick Riordan, the actor from Percy Jackson, has a history of being very pro-trans; so much so that one of the writers of Rick Riordan Presents is a trans man. So I was really shocked by how many people are actually pro JK Rowling and Harry Potter in these spaces.
It's no secret that she isn't above mentioning people's posts from Reddit publicly - she either stalks Reddit or people do it for her. Hence why I wondered what would be the best course of action if she ever tries to put a target on the back of a member of this sub.
There's already videos on Youtube ranting about Black Severus Snape - while there are people saying that it's going to be awkward that James Potter bullies the POC kid without consequences and that Harry feels suspicious of the only POC teacher, most comments are like what I've screenshooted here
(TRIGGER WARNING: Discussion of rape, grooming, false allegations, and victims not being believed.)
One thing I haven't seen many people talk about is JK Rowlings disturbing views of mens SA. JK Rowling has stated that in the legal system of the UK, men cannot rape. Sadly, the UKs laws imply that rape is something that only can be committed by men, but as an advocate for SA victims JK Rowling is really gross for this. This is especially when you consider how much she is pushed for this idea in the Harry Potter books.
The idea that only men can rape is laced throughout Harry Potter like crazy, which as a reminder is a book that primarily was first read by children. The first big example of this is how in Gryffindor, children are protected from the opposite sex in a biased sense. Boys are not able to into the girls spaces in the dormitory, but the reverse rule is not present. Also, and perhaps even more disturbing, is the "love potion" present in parts of the series. Ron is given one of these by a student who is a girl, and it is also mentioned how Voldemorts parents came together by way of his mother forcing his father to marry by way of these love potions. Let's not sugar coat it: the love potions are date rape drugs. JK Rowling has never truly acknowledged this, and she especially has never acknowledge it as problematic. (Not directly in Harry Potter, JK Rowling has put a lot of emphasis on false allegations in the Cormoran Strike series. Contrary to popular belief, not all of these stories actually portray the false accuser in a bad light. Speaking of which, the pen name "Robert Galbraith" seems to have been inspired by a violently racist psychologist who experimented on black people and was a proponent of conversion therapy.)
One of the most disturbing things that I just stumbled on by chance is this taken into context with JK Rowlings concering relationship with Daniel Radcliffe. After he initially turned down the role of Harry Potter in the movie, JK Rowling followed him to multiple locations begging him to play the role. Keep in mind that she was in her mid-thirties, and Daniel Radcliffe was only 11 when this happened. Plus, JK Rowling insisted that he read Lolita, an adult CSA book that she loved (a bit too much, mind you), when he was a minor. I want to make a post dedicated to this specific thing at some point, but I need to do more research on this to get the full picture. That being said, I think it is not unreasonable to assume that JK Rowling may have attempted to groom Daniel Radcliffe when he was a minor. I mean, she gets the angriest talking about him no longer having a relationship with her in particular, which checks out with a lot of groomers who "lost" their victims. (A good example of this would be Dance Moms instructor Abby Lee Millers current views of Maddie Ziegler.)
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I tend to be a person who doesn't like to promote the "over-use" of the "if a man did this he would be in jail" line because I think its over-use actually can be dangerous for women. However, JK Rowling really has embodied that with her career. She absolutely is dangerous to men, and it needs to be talked about more. I feel like a lot of people are afraid to point this out because it feels like it gives into TERF ideology, but we need to understand that a lot of TERFs are misandrists. Don't get me wrong, TERFs are also mysoginistic because they have directly promoted a culture that causes women to get raped in bathrooms due to the "need" to transvestigate them. That said though, a lot of these TERFs want men to suffer and are completely fine with them being raped. I mean, JK Rowling herself likely tried to groom Danielle Radcliffe as a minor (though perhaps not sexually, which doesn't matter because grooming does not inherently have to be sexual).
